Surgical procedures often employ the use of retractors to separate and hold tissue to expose the underlying tissue on which the procedure is to be performed. Blade retractors are a type of retractor that typically have a flat or slightly curved blade that is inserted into the body. The blade may have a handle portion that is used to manipulate the blade. One or more blade retractors may be used in a surgical procedure. Illumination in these procedures is typically limited to external illumination sources such as ceiling or wall mounted lights or light sources integrated into a headband worn by the surgeon (e.g., LED based or fiber optic based). These light sources provide poor illumination of the deep tissue on which surgery is to be performed. Fiber optic devices may be fixed to a blade retractor to shine light on the deep tissue, but fiber optic systems either provide a small spot of light requiring constant repositioning to view all the tissue, or they provide a very diffuse light that does not adequately illuminate the tissue of interest. The fiber optic also has a very small emission area. Any debris or blood that covers it will block the majority of illumination. Furthermore, fiber optic devices are very expensive, requiring specialized cutting, grinding and polishing. Some blade retractors are provided with length-wise channels into which ancillary retracting or illumination devices may be inserted. Blade insert illumination devices are currently limited to fiber optic approaches with their poor illumination characteristics.